It´s sad, but I imagine there are WRs who are after the money more than anything else and don´t care one way or the other (I´m thinking of Pierre Garçon in this case). On the other hand, for the Waynes and Collies of the world...

Posted by Goéland on 2013-09-25 20:07:56

That was a DPI, clear as day. The DB actually hits him in the helmet with the arm before the ball gets there (all the replays conclusively show it), so how the referee didn´t throw a flag I´ll never understand.

Posted by Goéland on 2013-09-25 20:03:56

Excellent point, Kibbles. However, I still appreciate the fact that WR will undoubtedly find fuel in this (slightly) misleading stat (of which they are cognizant, given remarks they have made from time to time) to work harder and push themselves even more.

Posted by Goéland on 2013-09-25 20:01:21

I don't think this statistic is very good one, because of how it's defined. Some of the passes they consider "drops" are ones where a defender hits the receiver right as the ball gets there. Several others I wouldn't call drops, like one to Welker against the Giants, where he was running an out and was about to get clobbered, so he pulled up a little bit to try to catch the ball and reverse direction at the same time. The pass glanced off his hands, but I wouldn't call that a good pass - it was leading him into trouble.

Posted by billyricky on 2013-09-25 15:54:05

anyway you slice it It would be nice to see ONE game where PM goes 100%.

Let that record go into the books..

Posted by Lonestar47 on 2013-09-25 14:41:12

To some extent this is unsurprising, and we should expect Denver to continue to rank among the league leaders in both total drops and drop rate. Consider: in order for a ball to be dropped, it must first hit the receiver in the hands. No quarterback to this point has hit his receivers in the hands more than Peyton Manning. No quarterback has seen a higher percentage of his passes hit his receivers' hands than Peyton Manning. That means Peyton has a lot more opportunity to have his passes dropped, both from a raw total standpoint and from a per-attempt standpoint.

Measuring "drop rate" by dividing drops by total attempts is a pretty crummy way to go about it. For instance, Manning has 13 drops on 122 pass attempts, for a "drop rate" of 10.66%. Josh Freeman has 10 drops on 94 pass attempts, for a "drop rate" of 10.64%. So Manning's drop rate is ever so slightly higher than Freeman's, right? Not so fast. One of Manning's 122 pass attempts was not an "aimed" pass attempt (i.e. it was either a spike or a throwaway), and it's silly to include it in calculations of drop rates. At the same time, 3 of Freeman's 94 pass attempts were not aimed. Exclude the non-aimed passes and Manning's drop rate jumps to 10.74%, while Freeman's jumps to 10.99%. So now Freeman's is ever so slightly higher.

But wait, there's more! Even among aimed attempts, not all passes are "droppable". In order for a pass to be dropped, it has to hit a receiver in the hands. Manning throws a lot more passes that hit his receivers in the hands than Freeman does. To date, Manning has thrown 102 passes that hit his receivers in the hands (89 completions, plus 13 drops). Josh Freeman has thrown 53 (43 completions + 10 drops). So for Peyton Manning, his receivers have dropped 12.75% of "droppable passes", while Josh Freeman's receivers have dropped a whopping 18.87% of "droppable passes". Suddenly, by improving the denominator, we've gone from Peyton's receivers dropping marginally more passes to Josh Freeman's receivers dropping a whopping 50% more passes.

In terms of total drops and raw drop rate (drops / total attempts), I would expect the Broncos to continue ranking among the league leaders going forward, mostly because I expect Peyton Manning to lead the league in "droppable passes" and "percentage of pass attempts that are droppable". In this case, total numbers and raw percentages are meaningless. Denver's receivers aren't the most sure-handed in the league, but I wouldn't expect them to rank among the leaders in terms of "percentage of droppable passes dropped".

Posted by Kibbles on 2013-09-25 13:52:53

These receivers have had the opposite experience, playing with a QB who could never get them the ball, lowest number of completed passes in the league. Then Manning comes to town and all of a sudden they are superstars....every day with Manning must be Christmas for these guys!

Posted by babsonjr on 2013-09-25 13:47:34

That "drop" by Demaryius should have actually been helmet-to-helmet contact. You could tell that he was definately concerned with getting lit up, and that had a big impact on his "drop".The kind of drops that shouldn't happen are like Moreno's drop out of the backfield on Monday. I'm not too concerned with downfield drops on really close plays and tight coverage.

Posted by Dan Alsup on 2013-09-25 11:23:41

If they count that Demaryius one on the sideline as a "drop," then I can live with drops.

Posted by brettrelax on 2013-09-25 11:19:19

I imagine it would be frustrating to go where the expectations are lower, watching the other receivers do things that the Sheriff would never allow.

Posted by Jason Chestnut on 2013-09-25 10:43:46

I'm pretty sure Manning's been all over it for some time now. Yanno, it'd suck to be one of his receivers, then moving on to another team with something like an RGIII or a Gabbert. I could imagine playing with any other QB is gonna seem like playing in some amateur league.

Posted by John Tomasik on 2013-09-25 10:29:22

Maybe their hands are just getting tired?

Posted by John Tomasik on 2013-09-25 10:27:31

A dominant 3-0 start and still a few things to work on. Pretty encouraging.

Posted by Hank Mardukis on 2013-09-25 10:26:31

Dropped passes can be lived with, at least at this rate of pass plays. Personally, I'd like to see a significant improvement in holding on to the ball once you have your mitts on it (fumbles Mr. Ball....ahem).

Posted by John Tomasik on 2013-09-25 10:23:00

The drop rate could be randomness or the result of sick passing skill. I can see more drops happening when receivers believe they are covered then a ball comes out of nowhere and hits them in the hands.